Who says I can't code?

After an hour of recoding in HTML, I managed to re-insert the blogger comments field.

Comments are back up!

LP

A brief update...

Yes, it has been awhile since I posted...

Since March I think I only have been home for about 14 days total:

...flew back from India, slept for a few days, traveled to Nashville, then Toronto, back to Victoria - where I finally had a weekend at home so I promptly packed and left for Hornby - returned home, but left for Vancovuer, then repacked and went to France. Fortunately I departed out Europe the morning of the European airspace shutdown, otherwise I would still be there. Arrived home, and after 2 days the wanderlust had already kicked in so I traded my dress clothes for comfort and then left again for Hornby, where I was forced to relax (in the pouring rain) with 2 children (and a dog!) in a small enclosed trailer.... but arriving home seems to have triggered my body to rebel and it won't make it out of bed this week... I think it is a combination of the flu, a cold, travel shots and swollen tonsils. I am supposed to leave for Asia in 3 days, so if I don't get better it looks like I will be grounded.

Maybe that is a good thing...

On the flip side I've got a new camera that is taking some good pictures of my travels. Here is Vancouver from the air, as I flew into Downtown.


Now I think I'll go watch Ferris Bueller's Day Off...

LP.

PS: In case you're wondering Haloscan totally screwed up the comments field and I need to recode the blog to make it happen.

There are times I wish I was a full time blogger....

... and today is one of them.

1) It's well above 30 degrees outside. Nothing better than to be sitting by the ocean contemplating and writing in my journal.

2)My left brain is full. I keep trying to Load "$", 8, 1, but can't find the right disk to do a mental load from.

3)I have almost finished my deck, and installed the hammock at home now. Talk about the ultimate blogging location - close to wifi and the beer fridge.

and the best reason:

4) When you hear, in passing, someone say "So what do you you think Porn Stars fantasize about when the go home to their partner? Do you think they bring their work home with them?"

I mean, with line like that, all I think is of the blogging fodder I could get out of it.

Going to France so I can slow down....

I have been writing. Not in the narcissistic way, but in a self-preservation. Unfortunately it has mostly been in my mind. Occasionally on scraps of paper, and although my leather bound journal has never strayed far from my side, the only time it has been opened was to record a fine wine or single malt notation.

To say the work-life balance has been interrupted is an understatement. But several days travelling across France this past week solidified my commitment to Go Slow, and spend all of August incommunicado on a small island, far away from the reach of technology.

We were 2 evenings in Annecy, France, a beautiful town that is connected to one of the historical authors and thinkers of the French Revolution, as well as the upcoming individual time trial for the Tour de France. Having a visit 18 days later would have climaxed this visit to a point beyond blogging...

The trip was for work, which usually means a 30 hour travel day (via 3 airports, a train and a car), followed by several 12+ hour work days, followed by a 30 hour travel commute home. However, when travel is required I make it a point to try to get out and see parts of the world I would otherwise probably not have the chance to visit. On this trip, I found 1 place I would visit again, especially if on a holiday.

On arrival we went on an drive to see the surrounding region from the top of Col de la Forclaz. In reality we drove most of the way but did have to portage through a cow maze, before getting to the point where we could watch some Parapenter's soar across the lake. Re-read that last sentence... yes, we actually had to go through a maze of cows.


On our way up we passed a field, reminiscent of the Sound of Music...


Had my wife been with us, I am sure she would have jumped the fence and ran into the middle of the field, spinning her arms like only Julie Andrews could.


You can see the dots of the Parapenters, essentially going from one peak on the side of the lake, across the lake and beyond another peak. Even from that height, we were unable to see the landing spot they were heading for.



At the top we watched both new and experts take their turn at jumping off the summit edge, their Parapents being buoyed by the thermal drafts a mere 1 or 2 feet off the ground. A colleague told me the expert Parapenters can stay up for a few hours, going across the lake and eventually to a landing site.

Annecy, with several small canals (with emphasis on the word small) snaking throughout the old part of the city, has a plethora of outdoor cafes which allow you to take in the afternoon and evening sights. Revelers mixed with lovers, tourists mixed with locals. I tried to make the transition from tourist to revelers, but had a difficult time convincing my coworkers to do some team bonding over many drinks (at least many in the Canadian sense).





By far the favorite part of the city was the discovery of this: Rue Jean Jacques Rosseau, and his monument.

Reading some of my early posts, circa 2005, you may see some influence of Rosseau. In fact, his book is one of 2 or 3 that sit along side my journal to read when I am in the contemplative mood (with Thoreau being one of the others).

We capped our 2 days in Annecy with a quick photo visit to the Monastery Church, with it timed by our local host to be both closed, but devoid of tourists. .

On our way back, our trip would not have been complete without a quick 3 hour tour of Paris, with a visit to the Sacre Coeur, and the Arc de Triomphe.




All said, short trip and full of historical monuments, but Doug's Summer Solstice post has me Pining for the Fjords of Hornby.

3 Months in 3 Pictures

Holy Crap - 3 months and no posting. If you only knew how busy I was, you'd cut me some slack....

March: A month of trying to get up to Hornby (3 failed "I'm packing the truck!") I finally got up to get the water tank installed on Hornby.

This sign is what March seemed to feel like...




April: I basically spent most of April travelling for work, or sequestered to a small windowless room doing 8 hour Innovation Sessions with a group of 10 people. Nashville. Toronto. Rajpur. Vancouver. And not one bike ride the whole month...

It felt like the whole month I only got outside once, but barely refrained from leaping off the cliff:

This was taken at the Savage Gulf in Tennessee.

Fortunately I did manage a stop-in to the big T.O. to visit some Vodka Bars and French Restaurants. I have never had such an inkling for some petite castor in my life... (ahem, yes it is a restaurant)

I also found out I was a marshmallow, as compared to a piece of fruit. Go figure.


May: I traded my rental car back in for my truck and a mattock, and got a water line trenched from the tank to my trailer. That's Dave, my F.I.L., who also taught sailing on the island last year. I think this year he realized if he wanted a shower in the trailer if he came up again, he was going to have to help get some water plumbed in.





All that is left is a little 12V wiring to my pump then putting in a filter and I should be able to pump water from the tank into the trailer. I can't wait to have my first 2500 gallon shower this summer.


Later... LP.

WTF?

Ok, ok. Stop nagging. I will post soon.

I do have a day job again... sheesh.

LP.

Crap! Going back again...

I had my France story written out, but then got delayed and now I am packing to go again. I have 4 suitcases this time - 3 of them filled with materials for the conference I am speaking at. That means 3 empty suitcases to come back with.

I am going cheese shopping on the way home. Anyone know the customs rules for bringing smoked meats back into Canada?

If all goes well there is going to be one big cheese party when I get back. I think I will have Air Canada status too, which means priority loading for my suitcase full of cheese. Sweet.

I think I need a sabbatical from work to get some of this blogging back into gear. Man, I can't wait for our summer to begin.

Logical Philosopher Becomes a Blogging Preschooler

For the past few months Little LP has been taking drum lessons. Our goal was not to find him the noisiest instrument possible, but rather to channel his energy from banging on all the good furniture into drumming on a set of rubber drum practice pads.

Now, with a 4/4 beat down on the high-hat, kick-drum and snare, he has been progressing onto triplets and paradiddles to the beats of Tom Cochrane and Stevie Ray Vaughn. After seeing him play one of the 12 year olds having lessons exclaimed “Man, he’s going to be sooo cool when he gets to be in grade 6!” While he is far from banging out some Neil Pert solos, he can keep tempo with AC/DC’s For those about to Rock. Not bad for a 5 year old.

Another year of blogging has come up me - I am entering year 3 - the preschool years! While my posts have slowed down I have been working on more quality than quantity. Like Little LP, I’ve been working on the literary equivalent of triplets and paradidles, instead of just bashing the tom-toms all over the page and hoping some semblance of beat shows up in the form of well crafted prose.

In early January I started back to work, which shifted me towards writing more “Crazy Me” stories, instead of the historic “Crazy People” posts. To be honest I have missed being downtown watching the crazy homeless people and animated Starbucks yuppies providing me with stories. But I now revel in being at work where I can watch the crazy telemarketers from the building next door and animated Facebook Addicts updating their status between meetings. Blogging fodder – take it where I can get it.

You may be asking, what does this mean for the next year of blogging? I should be back to work full time, but plan to keep up with my posts, because I am hoping with all this writing practice I will become “soooo cool” when I get to the blogging equivalent of grade 6.

And when we all get there you’ll be able to say you knew me when I was still fumbling with the differences between a prepositional phrase and when to use an indefinite article.

I'm melting!

I have had writers un-block. Many stories, but no time to commit them to paper this week as I have had replace my writing time with tree-house building. Little LP is quite excited, and the Littler LP keeps asking me "You build me a house daddy?" She wants it pink. He wants it like a "green army thing." I may compromise and leave it the color of pressure treated lumber.

Fortunately it has been about 35 degrees (that's 95 for you Americans) while I was building, which made me feel OK about drinking vast amounts of Coke Slurpee's all day.

I'm heading off for a few days to a small Gulf Island where I suspect I won't be able to freeload on wi-fi, so will be offline. I will, however, have my blogging notebook so will come back with a pod of letters, hopefully in a story format.

See you on Monday!

What's new at Logical Philosopher

I want to be your new daily vice.

I want you to check here before, and after, you check your facebook newsfeed while you are still at work.

Why? Over the past few years there has been quite a few times where I actually came to the end of the Internet. Really. At first I was Fazed. Then Digg and Reddit had given their all - and there were no new posts to see. And you know what? When I do emerge from being plugged in to the world's newsfeeds, I realize that not everyone has the passion to randomly digg like I do.

Last month I remember being asked about fixing an iPod battery for someone. "There's a guy in Montreal that will do it via mail order" I told him. "How can you possibly know that?" was the stunned reply. "I read the Internet last week. All of it."

So, in keeping with my maven like tendencies of being a web 2.0 based Renaissance Man, I've updated my template to include my Daily Fresh Links (on your left). Based on many categories, there will always be one interesting article or link to read.

Michael at Google Video of the Day said it best when he started in 2005:

Check here before you check your email at work. Share these delightful gems of idiocy, cuteness, and weirdness with your coworkers. Make it a habit, because habits are hard to break, and I want your ass coming back here every single day.

In the mean time I'll still be tweaking the layout & colors this week, but if you have any suggestions to make it flow better, or otherwise, let me know!

Brain candy for inquiring minds

Last week I had an academic epiphany - free knowledge for the masses, all thanks to Google and YouTube. Google Video has a vast list of videos to expand your knowledge base - academic lectures, Google Authors and Google Tech Talks. Some are great talks: Ron Avitzur's story of how he snuck into Apple for 6 months and worked for free on a then cancelled secret project that was later released into 20 million computers. Or Warren Buffett's talk to MBA graduates at the University of Florida.

My favorite Buffett quote "[when you graduate] work in a job that you like, not that looks good on your resume. Because isn't that like waiting for sex until your old age?"

My goal is to post the links to expand ones knowledge base. It's like going back to school, but from the comfort of your computer chair! And, if you don't like the professor, they won't notice if you skip ahead with the forward button.

I hope to post something you all will enjoy. Check it out:

http://googleuniversity.blogspot.com

Like I said, brain candy for inquiring minds.

Something exciting is coming...

... and it's going to be a knowledge revolution!

I'm working on another exciting blog idea - LP posts may be light this week as I working to get it ready to launch next week!

In the mean time check out Freewill Tastes Like Chicken! It's pretty funny stuff, like Grumpy Teacher meets a philosopher.

Stay tuned...

Social Neworking: Digg and Blogger Beta Users Are Still Early Adopters

Social Networkers Beware: Anecdotal proof that Diggers and Beta Bloggers are still the geeky Innovators and Early Adopters that we think we aren't.

If you Digg, Reddit, Furl, Delicious, Blog, or generally do more online social networking than offline, you probably think everyone else does it. You are vaguely aware of people that don't know what Social Networking is, and wonder where those people have been living. It's mainstream, you think. However we really are still in the Early Adopter phase of the internet's social networking boom.

Microsoft claims they own over 80% of the global browser market share - but that takes into account the market as a whole. This view is skewed because when you dig deeper you find all technology marketing managers actually split the market up using Diffusion of Innovation Theory. This split is seen as five technology adopter categories - innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, and laggards. If you look at each market individually, the claimed 80% market share is probably split very differently; my guess the IE market share being weighted greater than 90% for the Early/Late Majority, and less than 40% to the Innovators/Early Adopters.

I recently deviated from my usual posts and went technical, posting a piece entitled Getting Haloscan to work in Beta Blogger. After switching to Beta Blogger and spending many hours of struggling with this specific technology issue before getting it working, I thought it would be nice to give back to others. Almost immediately my web hit counter went up by about 200, most of them directly going to this post either from a search engine (mainly Google), digg link or another blogger referral. Considering the combination of Blogger Beta and Haloscan users is probably not that large, I found it interesting that over the next 2 weeks I had at least two thousand more hits on this single post. What I found even more interesting was about the browser usage, which I pulled from my Google Analytics account:

• 64% Firefox
• 27% Explorer
• 9% Other (Netscape, Opera, etc.)

Ironically this also lined up remarkably well with AUInteractive's recent post 64% of You Use Firefox. Regardless of where they came from - Digg, external blogger link or a search engine, the numbers still were overwhelming leaning towards Firefox.

Doesn't this data fly in the face of Microsoft's claim of dominat market share? Firefox even agrees they only have a small portion, 10-15%. If so, why?

Look at Firefox's initial market when the launched their first browser: they started by luring the Innovators and Early Adopters away from IE. Are they still doing that? If not explicitly I would suggest they are at least building on their base of Innovators/Early Adopters. Now considering my Google Analytics results I would think there probably is some statistical correlation between browser usage and Digg/Blogger users. This means that there is also a correlation between Digg/Blogger users and the adopter categories of Innovators & Early Adopters.

While the connection is loose, it still gives some general observations:

• If you are reading this with Firefox you probably are a geek: Social Networking is still in it's infancy. Innovators and Early Adopters still rule, and they rule loudly with Firefox. (Remember, being a geek isn't a bad thing - look how Bill Gates turned out, even if he doesn't use Firefox)
• Marketing folks take note: Blog & market your technology accordingly! Even this informal data helps define the target market for Diggers, Reddit and Blogger Beta folks.
• Internet CEO's beware: There is an upcoming "chasm" Social Networking companies need to worry about.

What can we do with these observations? I've been thinking about starting some focused social networking sites, but always had the feeling that the market was getting too crowded. The Paradigm Shift posted a blog last week entitled 300+ social network startups in less than 2 years. Historically, technology companies have had a difficult time "Crossing the Chasm" from wooing customers in the Early Adopters market to getting new ones in the Early Majority market.

Just for the record, I use Blogger Beta, post Del.icio.us items, Digg things, all while surfing with Firefox. I am also an Early Adopter.

Current and future CEO's of the Social Networking sites need to take note - there is probably a virtual Chasm for your technology as well and only time will tell how many of those 300+ will actually make the leap. As for me it will mean more market research and technology development before you see the launch of my next site.

Now if you use Firefox, prove me right and go digg me.

Getting Haloscan to work in Beta Blogger

For all you Beta Bloggers: Haloscan comments & trackback do work in Beta!
For all you non-technical, loyal LP readers: All regular comments are back up!

Finally, after (ironically) using google and not finding the answer I searched elsewhere on the Haloscan forum. Between some guessing and the comments of Wiiiai's and Now That's Amateur , I got them up and running.

Here's how to work it, which was posted on the forum as well:

Step 1:
Turn on the widgets and find the following 3 lines of code:

<span class='post-comment-link' >
<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType != "item" '>
<b:if cond='data:post.allowComments'>

Step 2: (which Wiiiai didn't include and it took me forever to figure it out)
DELETE the code that is in between the code above and the "<'/b:if'>" that comes next. If you don't do this you'll see both the blogger comments AND the haloscan comments come up. I saved them in a text file in case I need them back.


Step 3:
Insert the following (the XXXX being your haloscan user name):

<script src='http://www.haloscan.com/load/XXX' type='text/javascript'> </script>
<a expr:href='"javascript:HaloScan(" + "\"" + data:post.id + "\"" + ");"' target='_self'>
<script type='text/javascript'>postCount('<data:post.id/>');</script>
</a>


That's it.


UPDATE: it seems the footer code also needs ported into the spot when a post shows up on it's own page. Once I get it working, I will repost where to add that in also. Right now I have Haloscan to turn on in place of Blogger comments, but it may be easier to recode the text to work the opposite using the else/if statements - Haloscan turns on when Blogger turns off.

UPDATE 2: to add the code in the single post footer you need to drop in the SAME code as above, this time after the following code:

< id="'comments'" var="'post'">
< id="'comments'">
< name="'comments'/">
< 'h4' >

Note that both the blogger AND Haloscan comments will come up unless you delete the blogger code that comes under the < 'h4' >(which may be different in other templates).

UPDATE 3: Code in main section was updated - there was a missing portion of code the disappeared when blogger beta posted it! Arrg!

UPDATE 4: I've gotten a few hundered hits to this post, meaning there is a need for beta workarounds. If you are looking for other beta hacks check out Hackosphere, it's got a few gems in it.

UPDATE 5: If you came here just looking for the code using and are using Firefox, you may be interested in the follow-up article I did on Social Networking & Innovators/Early Adopters and their use of Firefox.

UPDATE 6: Peter at Utter Muttering got the trackback working. In the comment on this post he says "I just got trackback working (I think) by adding identical code and changing "HaloScan(...)" to "HaloScanTB(...)" and "postCount(...)" to "postCountTB(...)". It appears to be working correctly." Note that you need to add this new feature as a second set of code to your template.

UPDATE 7: I had a few emails about adding another update to clarify some things. Apparently for some templates you need to delete to the SECOND <b:if ... to get rid of the Blogger comments and the "invalid XML" error.

If you were able to use the hack, go digg it for me! Thanks.

I've moved!

I've moved over to the new Blogger Beta!

The one big change you will notice is my Labels categories on the sidebar, which was the main reason I switched over (I have Wordpress tagging evny).

For those already on Blogger wanting to do it: FOR THE LOVE OF ALL BLOGS THAT ARE HOLY - WAIT!!!

While it offers considerable behind the scenes advantages (tags, drag & drop templates, etc.), the drawbacks of not being able to edit your raw HTML caused some serious issues for me. I also had my comments in Haloscan and I can't seem to relink them. If anyone knows how, please let me know!

It may be a few days before new posts as I'm spending all my online time getting the new template tweaked to work, and I've got a year of posts to label for your categorized enjoyment!

*@#(! Computer

Arrrgg! No posts this week, a virus ate my computer, along with the 2 draft posts I had typed up. I think I got most of my data off before it went down in flames, but not sure... And my backup laptop went down with a different virus at the same time.

I guess that teaches me my lesson - don't piggypack off my neighbours WiFi when my router happens to be turned off because I'm too lazy to go upstairs and reset it.

See you in a few days, pending a new Windows install.

LP.

No book deal if you blog

Hey all you bloggers out there that are secretly aspiring for a book deal... Check out Sara Hepola's recent article on why she shut her blog down, entitled "Why I killed my blog".

Something to ponder... I haven't decided if I should follow suit or not ... but if I do need to publish my book and can't get the actual text written like Sara, I'm looking forward to Blurb coming out of beta - coming to a bookstand near you: Logical Philosopher year in review - best posts of the first year in hardcover.

Sweet.

Naked interviews

Was away this Easter weekend and have a few stories ready to type out. In the mean time I highly recommend reading today's post by on Waiter Rant entitled Missing Each Other. It is his latest post of a young couple on their first date. Things seem to be going well, but it all goes awry when the cheque arrives...

Here's a quote that made me fall of my chair laughing: "Dating’s like going on a job interview. You don’t know if you’ll get the job, but if you do, you get to see the interviewee naked."

I guess for us married guys that would make it: "Marriage is like being well past the job interview. You know you got the job, and on brief occasions the interviewee shows up naked to meetings but the rest of the time you're busy keeping the boss happy to ensure those meetings are still called."

What I'm goo(gle)d for

I was shocked by my statcounter results this week. And not a good shocked at that: in an almost dark and nefarious type of way, as opposed to my usual pleasure type shock. No Ohh baby for me.

It brings great pains to my literary soul that when you search "calories" + ikea + "cinnamon bun" on Google I come up as the top search. No top results for "great blogs to read" or "up and coming writers" or "what people blog about when they are off work". I suppose that leaves me something to still shoot for but still, I couldn't believe it. The entire world is a playground for my blogging imagination, and I am known in google for my buns. Reflect on that thought for a moment.

I'm not 100% sure what my goal of this blog is but I know it isn't to be googled for my buns....or perhaps that is the real reason you are here today?

Nonetheless I will continue to feverishly write by the flickering light of the evening fire, or fluorescent glow of public transit - whenever the moment moves me. And, mental note for the future: if I am getting moved to write a story at the exact same time as my 1.5 year old is pining for attention, I should not wait a few minutes and continue to write, but rather pay attention right then and there. Why? Because I now know just because you are 1.5 years old, it doesn't mean you don't know how to turn off the computer to get the attention you want. Now that I can't remember it, nor did I save it, I'm trying to convince myself that the story wasn't funny anyhow.

To escape my current google karma I will now start to write like I am trying to extricate myself from some digital nocturnal conventicle....the conventicle of Obscure Google Searches. I can just envision the 'made for TV' movie on this blog - In a Monty Python-esque moment the "Knights who say Ni!" are replaced with the Knights who say "Ikea Buns" to passing readers, and then turn and snicker to each other. Woe is me.

Over the past few months I have settled into two main types of posts:

1. Anecdotes about my daily wanderings: Interjected with humor (or so I'm told) they cover the fields of public transit encounters, interactions with my three year old and callipygian affairs. Who would have thought riding the bus could produce so much blog material?
2. Contemplative social based thoughts as I watch life swirl around me. This is where I take my time away from my work to reflect upon what I never noticed because I was too busy working, schooling and parenting. My personal favorite so far is my quasi-mathematical theory of Patience, referred to as the S-Factor. My academia aspirations bubble up to the surface during these posts...

I have a feeling that you readers come for the first kind of posts, but it's the combination of both that inspires me to keep writing. I aspire to write with imagination that, like when reading Thoreau, it envelopes you like a thick fog, bringing you into the moment. A far cry from my Engineering days, as such I find it surprising which posts attract comments (like the I Really Don't Like Eggs) and which ones don't.

In the process I have attracted a small, but somewhat consistent readership spread from Cincinnati to Phoenix and back up to Toronto. Who'd ever thought.

So, as I continue to blog and and bring a weekly digital diversion from your work my readership will (hopefully) grow. And when that happens and you're all still around, you can say you knew me when I was googled for my buns. Oh how far we will have traveled.

Sexy new look?

Yeah baby! Inspired by an eclectic mix of Rabsteen and Stephen M. Nipper I've done some minor template tweaks for color and spacing. I'd really like to move to Wordpress (mostly for the category listings) but can't rationalize the hosting cost (yet), so if anyone knows how I can get free wordpress hosting let me know.

As for the changes: the main one now lets you get Logical Philosopher via email! Like a fat kid on a smartie, I know *exactly* who will be all over that. Yes Ed, I was thinking of you.... So, for those RSS challenged (or get too many to read) you can now use Feedblitz to aggregate for you!

After a month of stimulating reading I have put Beth's College Dating Diary up on my top 10 blog list. Feel free to stop by and check her out (metaphorically of course) as in only a few short months she is starting to match the entertaining combination of part cynical part litterateur, like Opinionistas, but on dating life not legal afterlife.

Hope you like the changes....stay tuned for more stories this week.

Up next: I've been googled for my buns. How sexy is that?